This memo mentions San Fransisco but it does a good job of showing what
national is doing on a variety of efforts. This memo was written because
several population leaders had complained regarding what the club was doing to
implement the resolution on population in the last election.
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To: Karen Jones, Karen Kalla, Julie Beezley, Santos Gomez and Cathi Tactaquin
Fr: Carl Pope
Dear Karen, Karen, Julie, Cathi and Santos:
In response to your request for additional information on the Club's
implementation of our member adopted population policy, I wanted to bring you
up to date. Please share this memo with anyone who has, like you, expressed
concern that the Club was not fully implementing this policy.
1) A letter, which is attached, has been sent to the San Francisco
Chronicle, and will be sent promptly to any other outlet in which a letter or
article appears which has the potential to create confusion over the Club's
strict neutrality on the subject of immigration policy.
February 25, 1999
San Francisco Chronicle
901 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
DELIVERED VIA E-MAIL: [log in to unmask]
Dear Editor,
In recent weeks several letters have been printed in the Chronicle
alluding to a Sierra Club position in the contentious debate on
immigration. The implication that we support limiting immigration is
absolutely false. Our members voted last year that we would take no
position on immigration policy, and that position is binding on all
levels and entities of the Sierra Club.
No serious environmentalist doubts that overpopulation is one of the
most serious threats to our environment. But what our members
recognized is that moving people around, or keeping them from moving,
will do nothing to decrease the total number of people on the planet,
or rein in the overall birthrate. Limiting immigration will not stop
pollution, or prevent Ford from offering a grotesquely polluting SUV,
the new Ford Excursion, which Club members have dubbed the Ford
Valdez.
The Sierra Club's members voted to focus on the real work it will take
to stabilize global population and protect our environment. We are
fighting for empowerment and education for women in developing
countries and guaranteed access to family planning -- the proven
approaches to effectively and compassionately solve the global
population problem. We are fighting to curb wasteful consumption, and
hold politicians and polluters accountable.
Immigration policy is an important topic. It is not a topic on which
the Sierra Club will be involved.
Sincerely,
Carl Pope, Executive Director
Sierra Club
85 Second Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415)977-5526
2) The Bay Chapter and the Population Committee have both informed the
Bay Chapter Population Committee that it cannot issue public statements on the
subject of immigration which conflict with or create confusion about Club
policy. This is in addition to my own letter to Dick Schneider.
3) The Club has written Sierrans for US Population Stabilization a
letter informing them that since "Sierran" is a registered Sierra Club
trademark, they cannot use the name Sierran in any public statement which
creates confusion about Club policy without violating the
Club's trademark.
4) More important, from my personal perspective, is what the Club has
done in the last ten months to implement the full range of approaches endorsed
by our members in their vote last year. I regret that this work has evidently
not been sufficiently visible. I also regret that for the past several months
it has slowed markedly as the result of the departure of Marceline White. I
am still proud of what we have done, and I strongly feel that our track record
demonstrates a commitment to implement the full range of approaches endorsed
in our member adopted Population Policy:
a) We have used our opportunity to present the Population Program at the
Lilith Fair to gather the names of more than 200 activists who want to work on
our population program, using as the center piece the need for US funding for
women's micro-credit programs.
b) We have intensified our coverage of consumption issues in SIERRA,
with a regular feature on the topic, and we have commissioned a Sierra Club
book on low consumption "inventions that could change the world" like the
clothesline.
c) We have produced two new brochures, one on "Population, Consumption and
the Environment," and another on "Family Planning, Reproductive Health, the
Sierra Club and You." We have a new brochure on Population and Biodiversity at
the printer, and we continue to distribute our existing fact-sheet on "Women's
Empowerment, Population and the Environment."
d) We have launched, in partnership with Amnesty International, Global
Exchange and other partners, a major new initiative on Human Rights and the
Environment.
e) We have a major article about to appear in SIERRA by renowned
progressive journalist Mary Jo McConnaghy on what kinds of approaches
are really effective in dealing with population problems around the world.
This article will help drive home the lessons of Cairo.
f) We are doing the legal research necessary to see if we can bring
litigation against some of the environmental destruction associated with the
forced immigrant labor regime currently in place in the Commonwealth of the
Marianas.
g) The Sierra Club has taken the lead in trying to raise public
consciousness about the wastefulness and environmental destruction associated
with the American mania for the SUV, most recently with our widely publicized
nickname for the Ford Excursion, "the Ford Valdez."
h) We are seeking Club representation on the US Advisory Commission
oveseeing the International Monetary Fund, to try to increase our leverage
against the structural adjustment policies of the Fund.
i) We have played a major role in trying to ensure that Congress adopts
the sustainably based assistance program for African nations instead of the so
called "NAFTA for Africa" approach supported by the Administration.
j) We work secured passage of a provision requiring federal health plans
which cover prescription medication to also cover prescription contraception,
and launched a campaign to force private health insurance companies that cover
such drugs as viagra to also cover contraceptive drugs.
k) We conducted a broad range of meetings and conferences, either alone
or cosponsored with somen's organizations, student groups, and reproductive
rights groups. Each of these was designed top convey a broad, comprehensive,
Cairo-based vision of what is needed to deal with population issues.
l) In coalition with others, we blocked right wing efforts to reinstate
the Mexico City Gag Rule on International Population programs; we also
succesfully blocked imposition of a parental consent notification rule in Title
X, the federal program which provides family planning services for low income
comen and teens. We delivered 5000 postcards to Senators urging increased
funding for these programs.
m) We also delivered 5000 postcards on behalf of the Micro-Credit
Self-Sufficiency Act, which did pass, in unfortunately weakened forms.
n) Working with a coalition of women's organizations, we successfully
inserted language into the AID Appropriations bill that caused for special
earmarks (funds to be set aside) for women's education and economic initiatives,
and for the Office of Women in Development.
o) We gave extensive coverage in the PLANET to the Club's overall
population policy, including a special article and action item on the need for
the US to ratify the Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women.
We may have missed opportunities. Given Marceline's departure, I would
be surprised if we have not. But we have hardly been silent.
If there are letters we should have signed on to that we have not,
legislation worthy of support on which we are missing the boat, please let
Stephen Mills, the new Director of our International program, know, and copy me.
Both Stephen and I are committed to the most effective possible
implementation of our member adopted Population Policy. We recognize that among
the Club's leaders there are still important and unresolved conflicts on how to
approach this issue -- but the members have spoken, and we are enthusiastically
committed to carrying out their will.
It is very unfortunate that we took an unpardonable length of time to
respond to the misleading letters in the SF Chronicle. I chose to try to make
certain that we had sufficient policy clarification to avoid future such
incidents, rather than sending a clarifying letter first. This was a mistake.
I should have recognized that even though there has been no disagreement among
the national Club leadership that these letters were inappropriate and in
conflict with Club policy, getting a generic ruling from Club entities always
takes time, even when there is no real controversy.
We now have such clarification, both as regards official Club entities and
caucusses such as SUSP. We have now sent a letter to the Chronicle in response,
and any future incidents will be responded to instantly. But I made a mistake
in not getting the clarification out first while we worked on guidelines.
Chuck indicated in his letter to you that he is willing to decide specific
volunteer personnel matters with you in an appropriate, private forum. I hope
that this memo has responded to the overall thrust of your letter.
Sincerely yours,
Carl Pope
cc: Board of Directors
Conservation Governance Committee
Sustainable Planet Strategy Team
Population Campaign Committee
International Staff
Sierra Club Council
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